I know it sucks. I'm currently posting this while waiting for my character information to be retrieved for the fifth time in 30 minutes. But that's the purpose of this, it's not a shock to anyone except maybe consumers who don't understand the finer points of open beta.

Which is exactly the point that I'm making. I know what an open beta is, thanks very much; what I'm driving at is that if you're putting up as much advertising at Best Buy or GameStop as Cryptic has for this, you're going to draw a lot of people that aren't familiar with the beta process, don't get what betas are about and are expecting things to "just work." Now Cryptic seems confused at all of the ire floating around these forums when really, they didn't set the expectations you're talking about when they were slapping posters up all over game stores urging people to preorder and sign up for the open beta. Star Trek is a huge property with a lot of fans, many of whom may be new to gaming in general and MMOs in particular. It would have made sense for them to spell out exactly what to expect from a beta and to do so sooner than the opening screen for downloading the beta client (at which point a lot of people had already spent money on the preorder). This doesn't even address the massive problems people are having just getting the beta client, either (or the fact that I've already seen one Cryptic employee act like a douche to someone who asked a perfectly reasonable question, which impressed me to no end).

And really, no one's making you rush around the forums clarifying what an open beta's all about. You don't need to act so put-upon or talk to us like we're all morons.